Smoked Corned Beef!

Sounds interesting. I have also thought about it. I hope someone with experience smoking a corned beef will jump in.

Meowey

 

Dude that is crazy I was just thinking about that an hour or so ago, if smoked corned beef would be any good or not.

 

Hey Carl,

I remember someone doing that a month or so ago. I think they were trying to make pastrami. To the best of my recollection it wasn't too good. I think they said it tasted like bad pastrami. It's hard to improve on baked or crock pot corned beef IMHO.

 

yo up in smoke dude,
pastrami is smoked corned beef.

around st.pats day --
3to4 lb corned [cry o vac] beef [brisket] points
are cheap in these parts.

i took a couple --and smoked like a brisket.

keep in mind these were probably $1.19 a lb.

the end resullt was o.k.---not great

I M O the crock pot is a way better place for these corned beef .

maybe corning a round roast--then smoking would be great.

my butchers deli corned beef is great.

 

i did one a month or 2 ago, came out ok. it tasted liked corned beef hot out of the smoker, but after a night in the fridge it tasted like decent pastrami.
http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/viewtopic.php?t=1509

 

yo y'all,
maybe all night in refridgerator is crucial.
my smoked c beef didnt last 4 hrs out of smoker.

 

Larry....yup yup!! my smokes usually don't last long either. the day i smoked the c-beef the rest of my family was gone for 2-days...so i enjoyed it all to myself....just couldn't handle a whole c-beef in one sitting.

 

Uhh... shouldn't this topic be in the beef aisle?

Anyway, all this talk of corned beef and pastrami got me looking through the pastrami recipes. I noticed a few things that might help.

Some recipes call for cuts no thicker than 3 inches. I don't know if this is to help with brining or smoking.

After the beef is brined (that's already done if you start with store-bought corned beef, obviously), it's usually rubbed with black pepper and coriander, maybe some garlic powder, and maybe some paprika for color.

Then it's into the fridge for the night.

Here's the interesting part: the recipes I've found all call for the meat to be dry on the surface prior to smoking. That actually makes some amount of sense: since the meat is already cured there's no need for extra nitrites, and you'd never see the smoke ring if there was one.

For drying, some call for 4-6 hrs at room temp, some call for an hour in a 130F-150F smokehouse with the dampers open wide, but they all call for a dry product before the smoke is applied.

Opinions vary on the target temperature, but the common thread seems to be light smoke at 200F to 230F until the internal temp is where you want it (some say 150F, some say 180F... whatever you feel comfortable with).

Now, you could always start with your own brisket or sirloin, if you've got a meat pump. All the recipes pump the meat to 5% or as much as 15% green wheight before immersing it in the brine for a week or so.

So it might be worth a shot after all. You could always cut a few 3" cuts, rub 'em, dry 'em, and smoke 'em, and just do the rest of the corned beef in the crock pot.

Either way, yum yum!

If you give it a try after all, let us know how it turns out!

--Thom

 

As far as I remember, nobody has ever posted a GREAT smoked corned beef dish. The best I have heard about were okay, and those usually involve rinsing all the brine and seasoning off the beef before the cook starts. I myself am by far too lazy to go to that much trouble for beef. i would rather just smoke a brisket and enjoy some cold ones during the cook, and of course during the meals.